Adkins v. Kelley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 10 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The purpose of the AMI was to save valuable time in settling instructions at the trial level, to attain uniformity, to reduce confusion, to allow composition of instructions by the courts and attorneys with confidence and ease, and insofar as possible, with such accuracy as to reduce the number and necessity of appeals. The per curiam requirement, supra, recognized the necessity for flexibility in the use of AMI. Thus, the trial judge may modify if he feels that AMI does not accurately state the law, and by placing his reasons in the record, the attorneys in considering an appeal, and the appellate court, in considering the points relied upon, may go straight to the heart of the alleged error and adjudge the validity of the refusal or modification of the instruction with greater dispatch and with greater accuracy as to specific point relied on. To accomplish the purposes of AMI we must insist upon its use where applicable, to hold otherwise, would place us back into the confusion and inaccuracy of the pre-AMI era and destroy the usefulness and purpose of AMI.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Thomas Ex Rel. Thomas v. Gilliam

2. ““ ‘If Arkansas Model Jury Instructions (AMI) contains an instruction applicable in a civil case, and the trial judge determines that the jury should be instructed on the subject, the AMI instruction shall be used unless the trial judge finds that it does not accurately state the law. In that event he mil state his reasons for refusing the AMI instruction. Whenever AMI does not contain an instruction on a subject upon which the trial judge determines that the jury should be instructed, or when an AMI instruction cannot be modified to submit the issue, the instruction on that subject should be simple, brief, impartial, and free from argument.’ (Emphasis supplied.)””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Lockhart v. O'Hara

3. ““It is sometimes incautiously stated that a verdict awarding damages for future disability covers only pain and suffering, beyond the special items (expenses and loss of earning power). Such a view is inaccurate, because compensation is routinely awarded for disability per se, as the Shebester case (supra) points out, and also for the non-pecuniary, non-pain aspects of the disabled condition, such as deprivation of a normal life and of a chance to pursue non-economic hobbies or recreation.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 526 F. Supp. 1149 - Jackson v. United States